My song, “(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine” is a celebration of independent punk journalism. It is also a wink and a nod to Shel Silverstein who wrote Dr. Hook’s hit, “Cover of the Rolling Stone.”

Punk rock was a return to the garage roots of real rock’n’roll. It was a repudiation of the music industry of the late 1970s.

Thus, punk was a revolt against the inflexible control of the record industry by four colossal corporations: Warner, CBS, RCA, and EMI.

Punk was also a mutiny against commercial top 40 and classic rock radio stations that stringently resisted any new sounds.

And punk was an uprising against the journalism that gave press only to music released by the four record company monoliths.

The punks said, We will create our own record companies. And they did, and thousands of tiny labels, many with only a single 45 rpm in their catalog, popped up all over the world.

The punks said, We will find radio stations and clubs that will play our music. And they did, and non-commercial radio and punk clubs became havens where the punkers could listen and dance to their music.

And they said, We will publish our own fanzines. And they did, and thousands of rags, type set with scissors and glue and typewriters, printed by mimeograph and photocopy, and distributed by hand, popped up in thousands of towns.

My song, “(The Cover of a) Punk Magazine” is about this massive outpouring of punkzines.

On the pages linked to this post, I present, for your review and examination, all of the fanzines that are imaged in my song’s video. Not all the fanzines are strictly punk magazines, but they were all part of the independent music journalism that the punks promulgated. They can all be seen on this page: Punk Fanzines

I also mention in the song the bad guys: the major commercial publications that, with few exceptions, never recognized the importance of the punk movement. Images and information about some of the industry publications can be found on this page: Industry Publications

I hope that anyone who was responsible for any of these great fanzines realizes that my video, my song, and these images are a celebration of your accomplishments. If you object to being a part of this project please contact me personally at oilofdog@inbox.com and I will remove you.